Archive for the ‘Careers’ Category

Monday mornings are a dread with that sinking, ground hog day feeling as you think about the week ahead.

You feel frustrated, stuck and angry, as right now, you don’t even have a vision for what else you could be doing. Or what you would like to be doing feels so impossible and not one that would pay the bills.

For comfort and distraction, maybe you binge on food, alcohol and drugs or other ‘blotting out’ fixes.

But you know deep down that this is not the solution.

Before you get too hard on yourself, let me say, you are not alone and many of us have been through this feeling of being stuck and not being able to see an alternative future.

Are you looking for an injection of new energy, fun and vitality in your current role or perhaps your are interested in a new role that will offer this more?

Are you ready for a new project or wanting stretch in your current job? Do you feel a bit staid and, dare I say, a tad bored, with where you are currently?

These feelings are certainly normal. We all go through such phases especially when what started out as a cool job loses its spark and becomes mundane.

If you are going through such a phase, here are some questions from “Get Your Groove Back” which might help:

What are some activities or areas of work that interest and bring you joy?

What is something you have an interest in but have not pursued in any way?

What is one thing you might do if you were not afraid?

What is one thing you might do if money was not an issue?

What is one thing if you did differently in your work life, it would have the most impact?

What is a small thing if you did differently or introduced in your personal life, it would have a great impact?

I also really value Herminia Ibarra’s work. The INSEAD professor in Organisational Behaviour and Leadership and Learning offers an interesting approach on career matters in her book “Working Identity: Unconventional strategies for Reinventing Your Career”.

She prefers “test and learn” to introspective self-analysis. She says the way to figure out your next career is to ‘bump into it.’

Her key question is “what maximizes the chances that you will encounter it, then recognize it as a real possibility and develop it?”

The three practices that form the basis of this strategy are:

Craft experiments: Devise ways to sample a new role without giving up your current job. Take courses in a field that interest you and experience some aspect of that field.

Shift connections: Expand your network of contacts beyond your usual circles. Reach out to people who do work that you are interested in for advice and information.

Make sense: Create a story that you can tell yourself and others about what you are trying to do and how it connects the old you with the person you wish to become. Don’t be afraid to revise it regularly as you progress and in your growing understanding of where you want to go.

Anne (not real name) put it like this, “I have bumbled into things that have allowed me to be me. At times, what I thought would not count for much turned out to be really exciting and vice versa. I have also taken some very planned decisions. I think there is a “bumble balance” there somewhere!

A couple of reflective questions for you:

1) Imagine your best career/life manifested! What does this look/sound/feel like?

2) Which practice from above could you engage in more?

As a leadership and career coach, I love working with individuals, teams and organisations to help them be resilient as they progress with their goals and vision. You can contact me at +64 27 280 3335 or jasbindar@jasbindarsingh.com

“To be successful we must live from our imaginations, not from our memories.” ~ Steven Covey

Can you relate to any of these thoughts and feelings? You feel stuck in a rut. Trapped! You have had enough of being where you are but just don’t seem to be able to break out of it.

You feel annoyed, frustrated and helpless and think of others who seem happier and more fulfilled in their lives. There is an underlying fear, “I will never get out of this, and maybe I don’t have what it takes!” Feelings of anxiety and panic abound at not being able to see a different future.

As some of you would know, being stuck in a rut without any sense of verve, excitement or creativity, sucks! And it is hard to know where to start when you are in it. But it doesn’t have to be this way. There are things we can do to re-connect with our creative energies and catapult us out of the rut we are in.

“The oak fought the wind and was broken, the willow bent when it must and survived.” – Robert Jordan

Tension, stress and relationship challenges are all part and parcel of our crazy, busy lives – work and home.

Can you recall the last time you felt stressed and challenged at work or home? Perhaps this was in the recent past or perhaps it is right now that you are facing some big challenges?

The key to our resilience is not so much that these stressors are there but how we deal with it.

The two extreme strategies that don’t work are avoidance – wishing that the issues would magically disappear, using escape methods such as food, alcohol and drugs or “blowing up” as we vent and take out our frustrations and anger on someone else. This is even worse when the ‘someone else’ is an unsuspecting spouse or someone close to us.

It has been a while but I still recall how shocked I was when I first discovered that a seemingly “very together” senior team member actually resorted to using anger to control people and to dominate. Needless to say, they did not last very long in that role.

What works is that instead of reacting and being at the mercy of our emotions, we develop our emotional intelligence and adopt a more constructive, problem-solving approach to whatever we are facing. This is not always easy but necessary.

So how do you respond when you get stressed? What strategies work best for you when your resilience gets tested?

There are many things we can do to build our resilience and capacity to deal with stressful situations.

Are you suffering from the end-of-year career blues? Are you questioning “can I bear to have a repeat of this year” and the answer and inner knowing is a definitive NO!

We naturally get a bit more reflective as the year ends – thinking about our lives in a more holistic way than we have had time for during the busy year of deliverables.

As our jobs, business, relationships and careers come into greater focus, we ask ourselves whether we doing what we truly want to be doing? These questions can also feel scary as they raise the issue of how resonant, fulfilling and aligned our work is with our deeper self or calling. You may even be questioning what the latter is for you.

If you are like some of my recent coachees who have wanted to discuss strategies for moving forward, then I have a special offer for you later in the blog.

But for now you may wish to check-in with the questions under the following six areas to gain clarity and focus.